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Hlaungadath
Hlaungadath is one of the three cities that survived “normally” the destruction of Netheril. It is a city that landed near the High Ice and was eventually abandonned. Hlaungadath: About forty miles east of the ruined city Ascore on the northwestern border of the desert, another abandoned city rises from the sands. Hlaungadath is one of the three floating cities that Mystra saved during the destruction of Netheril. It is a city that landed near the High Ice and was eventually abandoned. Old but largely intact, the ruins are inhabited by a clan of lamias. The lamias stalk the nearby oases, preying on careless Zhentarim or unwary Bedine - but anyone knowledgeable of the desert knows of the evil of Hlaungadath and give the ruins a wide berth. The city had been inhabited by lamias and their minions. The Lost Portal at Hlaungadath When Karsus stole the Weave from Mystryl and brought about the doom of the Netherese Empire, the sudden loss of magic caused the floating cities to crash to the ground. The city of Hlaungadath landed the most northward of any of them, and it sits now near the High Ice. The ruins of this place have been covered to some extent with the sands of Anauroch, but structures still poke through the sand and littered stone, marking the passing of this once-great place. Since that time, various groups of Bedine desert raiders occupy the ruins, but each group has found some kind of evil in the place and has abandoned the site. No one can describe the evil, except to say that it lurks and disturbs the dreams of those who remain in the ruin area. Adventurers have explored some of the ruined structures, but they found no trace of a magical "evil" such as the more superstitious Bedine describe. In the last few years, the ruins of Hlaungadath have become home to a group of proud and arrogant lamias, led by a lamia sorcerer of great power named Koreeis. The lamias once wandered the desert sands and raided Zhent caravans. They overstepped some hidden boundary of respect and earned the lasting enmity of Jolarr and his group of magic-hating Bedine raiders. The Bedine forced the lamia clan steadily northward to the ruins of Hlaungadath, where the evil reputation of the place stopped the Bedine. Attempts by the lamias to move southward again have all been met by stiff resistance from Jolarr and his Bedine. Now, the lamias raid where they can, and they send smaller groups southward to further their evil ends. The downward turn of the fortunes of the lamia clan might be arrested now, however. Deep within what was once a temple to Mystryl, the god of magic before Mystra, the lamia leader has found a portal. The portal is 7 feet high and 5 feet wide, and it is framed by a permanent glowing light similar to a faerie fire effect. The portal itself constantly shimmers with a bluish misty undulating light, but so far the lamias have not been able to use the portal. Since the discovery, they have been raiding particularly to capture a spellbook or sorcerer from which they can learn to analyze portals. The portal was created during the heyday of Hlaungadath's glory to ease travel to and from the dwarven city of Ascore, principal city of the powerful dwarven realm of Delzoun. However, the creator secretly added several other destinations, since the cost was low. He used these alternate destinations for his own purposes, and no one ever found out about them. The portal is two-way for each destination. Activating the portal requires that one recite an ancient dwarven chant. The chant has been lost to the ruins of Hlaungadath, but the composer inscribed it on a wall in ruined Ascore so that the dwarves would remember it. The chant is a mere 30 lines long -- very short for a dwarven chant -- and ends with the line "that the halls of our fathers may stand for 10,000 years" (loose translation). The creator decided to key the alternate locations to the same song, but with a different length of years in the final line. For example, "... for 10,000 years" opens the portal to the ruined chamber in Ascore, while "for 1,000 years" opens a portal to the Astral Plane. The creator did not have a really strong memory, though, and recorded the alternate numbers in a journal. This journal was left behind when the people of Hlaungadath fled the city, and it is now a crumbling ruin of leather flakes buried in the sands of the room where the portal stands. The lamias have not found the journal fragments, and they could not recognize them as valuable if they did. By piecing them together slowly and meticulously, one can recover a section that lists the following: * 1,000 Astral Plane * 2,000 Miyeritar * 6,000 Anauria * 12,000 Myth Drannor The portal at Myth Drannor is actually some three miles north of the site of the old city in a great tree that once served as an elven home. No trace now exists of the home, but the portal remains within its branches. Anauria is now in ruins under the sands of the Sword. This portal is not the one described in the "Anauria Portal" article later in this series. Miyeritar is the name of the ancient elven kingdom that once existed where the High Moor now lies. The portal is no longer marked; it sits in the midst of a group of stones that might once have been part of a wall of some kind, or an arch. It is in the central High Moor, and only a concerted search using analyze portal reveals its location without actually using the portal. Category:Ruins Category:Settlements in the High Ice